Cynthia Morris Sherman is an American artist whose work mostly consists of self-portraits, showing herself in many different contexts and as various characters.

She has challenged identity by playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. She is among the most significant artists of the Pictures Generation which is a group that came of age in the 1970s and responded to the mass media landscape surrounding them with both humour and criticism, appropriating images from advertising, film, television, and magazines for their art.

Her works portrays the female stereotypes. Presenting as many different characters, she invents personas that highlight the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. To create her images, she takes on multiple such as photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist.

“I wish I could treat every day
as Halloween, and get dressed
up and go out into the world
as some eccentric character.”

The image is taken from Cindy Sherman’s photo collection called ‘Untitled Film’ which is a collection of 70 black and white images which the artist posed in the guises of various generic female film characters.

This image depicts a stereotypical housewife in the 70’s, however the black and white filter and the dissatisfied expression on her face give of the feeling that this isn’t her true self and she is tired from having to put on an act. I think this is further presented by the heals she is wearing in somewhere where comfort is expected (the bedroom) showing how uncomfortable and ongoing this facade was. The white dress has connotations of innocence which correlates with the expectations of women especially during this time period while the bedroom setting and the way she is lying present to me that she is exhausted and is hiding away because she doesn’t want anyone else to see her exposed true self rather than the version of herself that is formed by societies expectations for women.